ComiXology, an Amazon company, recently announced the launch of ComiXology Unlimited, a digital comic subscription service. For $5.99 a month, subscribers can read titles from a selection of thousands of comic books, graphic novels and manga offline on any device. Comic fans can get started with a 30-day free trial.
Subscription selections are available on the ComiXology website and apps and are identified by the Comixology Unlimited logo. For now though, ComiXology is only available in the U.S., but it plans to expand internationally soon.
Other comics, including single issues, are available on ComiXology for purchase as well, so you can get your fill of Captain Canuck, The Accelerators, Angry Birds and Beserk Max, with or without a subscription.
ComiXology joins a short list of other digital comics subscriptions like Marvel Comics, Archie and Comic Blitz, ranging in price from $7.99 a month for Archie Unlimited to $9.99 a month for Comic Blitz and Marvel Unlimited.
What differentiates this service is Amazon’s reach to more than 75 comics publishers and its Guided View reading technology which allows readers to double-tap on any panel in a comic to enter Guided View or swipe or tap to shift from panel-to-panel at their own pace.
Entertainment Weekly interviewed ComiXology CEO David Steinberger about the new subscription service.
“It sounds silly but our mission is to make everyone on the planet a comics fan. That’s really hard to do by just throwing them into the middle of 100,000 comic books. It’s a lot easier if people have a very low risk opportunity to discover comics for themselves and just really take their time with the catalog,” Steinberger told EW.
Insider Take:
While always well loved, comics have grown in popularity in recent years, and the digitization of comics have made them accessible to a significantly larger audience. With an affordable price point and the ability to read comics offline, subscription comics services are capitalizing on the opportunity to draw in loyal fans and to facilitate discovery for new ones.
We expect that, like the over-the-top (OTT) TV market, more players will enter the subscription comics realm over the next year or so. There are likely to be enough fans for everyone to enjoy a nice chunk of recurring revenue, but due to its sheer size and resources, Amazon will always have the advantage. Thanks to the subscription model though, subscription services like Comic Blitz don’t have to be corporate behemoths to make a go of it. There is room for everyone at this early stage.
